CATS. 



THE cat is generally considered to be a domesticated 

 animal, but it would be more justly described as a 

 gregarious one. No one who sees the placid and indifferent 

 air with which the cat conducts itself when within doors, 

 and compares it with the wild rapture with which the 

 creature lifts up its voice when assembled with five or six 

 of its species upon the end of a garden wall, can question 

 for an instant that the cat is above all things gregarious in 

 its instincts. That domestication is alien to the feline 

 nature is proved also by the fact that there are no recorded 

 instances of lions, tigers, or even the wild cats of these 

 islands, walking into a parlour and lying down upon the 

 hearthrug of their own accord. In the case of the wild 

 cat it may be urged that such an advance on its part would 

 not be welcome, but assuredly no opposition would be 

 offered to the lion or tiger who might yearn to domesticate 

 itself in this manner. The extreme repugnance which the 

 feline race in their wild state evince for fire is another 

 proof of the absence of any domestic yearnings in their 

 breasts, for fire is the emblem of domesticity. The cat, 

 then, has clearly assumed domesticated habits under protest, 

 and as against its innermost nature; but it must be admitted 



